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In Europe this weekend, 400 citizens will be invited to participate in a deliberative poll. This is a technique that has been around for more than 15 years which gives people the chance to voice their opinions about issues in a moderated debate.

People are organized in tables, each table has it’s own moderator and the large group follows a discussion guide. As the discussion progresses, comments and ideas and suggestions from each table are sent to the central stage and shared with a large group.

The European debate is a response to the fact that citizens rarely debate European issues with citizens from other countries and that European politicians want to go beyond traditional polls to hear the real issues.

What’s interesting is that this group of 400 citizens, selected randomly from all 27 EU member states will meet in the European Parliament and EESC buildings in Brussels and Europe’s politicians will be in attendance.

It’s interesting that deliberative polling has been used fairly frequently to understand political issues, but what about brands?

Could a brand face up to scrutiny and questioning from a large group of customers and prospects gathered in a room engaged in a deliberative discussion?

Given that brands today are so keen to embrace the consumer and bring them into the marketing process, from a research perspective deliberative polls what seem to be the way forward and something that would go beyond traditional qualitative and quantitative research.

Anyone brave enough to try?



Posted by Ed Cotton This Sunday's New York Times had a good piece on how McDonald's is changing its image in Europe localizing menus, which it has done for years, but more recent efforts have been focused on store design. The article had a good slideshow, but I dug up some other examples, that show just how far the brand is pushing to be relevant in Europe. It's probably just a matter of time before some of these design initiatives come to the US.

McCafe in Germany


McDonald's in Germany



McDonald's Milan, Italy




Posted by Ed Cotton